Chris Wright (music industry executive)
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Chris Wright | |
---|---|
Born | Louth, Lincolnshire, England | 7 September 1944
Occupation(s) | Businessman; music industry executive |
Years active | 1964–present |
Spouse | Janice Wright |
Children | Timothy Wright Thomas Wright Chloe Wright Holly Wright |
Chris Wright, CBE (born Christopher Norman Wright on 7 September 1944) is an English music industry executive.
He has produced acts such as Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, Blondie, Ultravox and Spandau Ballet.[1]
He was the co-founder of Chrysalis Records and Music with his business partner Terry Ellis in 1968. Wright bought Ellis out in 1985, when the Chrysalis Group went public. Wright retained ownership of Chrysalis Music until 2010, when the publishing company was acquired by BMG Rights Management.
In the '90s, Wright launched the Heart commercial radio brand in Birmingham and London, and the Midsomer Murders detective drama series broadcast on ITV in the UK and over 225 TV channels around the world.[citation needed]
Between 1996 and 2001, Wright was the owner of Queens Park Rangers F.C. and the majority shareholder and chairman of Wasps Rugby Club. He continued as major shareholder and non-executive chairman of Wasps until 2008.[2]
Wright was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for services to the Music and Entertainment Industries.[3]
Childhood and early life
Wright was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, the only son of the last in a long line of farmers, and grew up in Grimoldby. While attending King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth, he began submitting small articles to the Louth And District Standard newspaper and had ambitions to become a sports or political journalist.[4] In his teens, he played table tennis.[5]
Career
In 1962, Wright went to
In 1966, he discovered
While Chairman of the BPI (
On 13 October 2015, in recognition of Wright's career and contribution to music, he was awarded with a
Chrysalis
Ten Years After's early success gave Ellis the funds to put Jethro Tull in the studio to record their This Was debut album, the first Chrysalis Production, issued via a licensing deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1968. "It was the foundation of the Chrysalis organisation,” said Wright.[1] The partners put Wright's first name and Terry's surname together, the address they had been using for telegrams, to come up with the name Chrysalis.[5]
Blackwell agreed he would give them their own label if they notched up 10 Top Ten albums or singles within three years. With guitarist Mick Abrahams leaving Jethro Tull to form Blodwyn Pig, and charting alongside his former bandmates, that target was reached within a year and Chrysalis, with its distinctive red butterfly logo over a green background, was born.
In 1971, Chrysalis Music signed David Bowie to a publishing deal but Wright was on tour in the US with Ten Years After when Ellis, his business partner, listened to a white-label copy of "Hunky Dory", and turned down the chance to sign the singer to a recording contract. "You get some right and you get some wrong," Wright reflected.[8]
In the 1970s, Wright was particularly instrumental in the renewed success of Procol Harum, the emergence of their former guitarist Robin Trower as a solo artist, and the worldwide popularity of another Chrysalis signing, Leo Sayer. While attending a series of concerts by Sayer at the Roxy in Los Angeles in November 1976, Wright suggested that the soaring saxophone solo featured in the live version of "When I Need You" should be added to the album cut for its release a single. The new recording of "When I Need You" went on to top the UK and US charts the following year.[citation needed]
With Ellis concentrating on running Chrysalis in the US, Wright backed his hunches and made a raft of UK signings that paid huge dividends and proved culturally significant. In 1979, he offered
In 1980, Chrysalis became a key name for New Romantic music when Wright signed the reinvigorated Ultravox with new lead vocalist Midge Ure, and then Spandau Ballet – the London band who came to epitomise the genre even more than their rivals Duran Duran.[citation needed]
"We were cutting edge. We were able to pick up on everything – we kept our ears close to the ground," Wright told
By the mid-1980s, Wright's partnership with Ellis had run out of steam. A mooted but costly move into films favoured by Ellis became a bone of contention and the eventual catalyst for their split. Wright bought his partner's 50% stake in Chrysalis and set about reinvigorating a company that was now listed on the London stockmarket. The subsequent signings of
By then, the huge overheads involved in running a world-size independent company and the under-performance of several releases, notably Billy Idol's much-delayed Charmed Life album, had forced Wright to sell 50% of Chrysalis Records to EMI. The next year, EMI exercised its option to buy the other half, just after Wright's company topped the singles chart for the last time with a one-hit-wonder "The One And Only" by Chesney Hawkes.[citation needed]
Wright held on to Chrysalis Music Publishing, representing not only some of David Bowie and
Sports
Wright's first foray into sports was with the
In 1996, Wright bought Queens Park Rangers (QPR) Football Club, which had just been relegated from the Premier League, and a 51% stake in Wasps rugby club.[14] He brought both under the Loftus Road PLC umbrella with the intention that both teams would share the stadium. He did not succeed in taking QPR back into the top tier and sold the club in 2001.[15] On the other hand, as rugby union turned professional, Wasps enjoyed a golden spell, winning 10 trophies between 1996 and 2008, when Wright sold his controlling interest. Wright is Honorary Life President of Wasps.
Racehorses
Wright has been involved in the thoroughbred racing industry since 1981, both as an owner in the UK, France, the United States and Australia, and also as a breeder through his Stratford Place Stud based in the
One Way or Another
His autobiography, One Way or Another – My Life in Music, Sport And Entertainment, was published by Omnibus Press in the UK in October 2013. In a four-star review in the Daily Express, Gerard Henderson said: "Chris Wright pulls no punches in telling his gripping, fascinating life story. The reviewer further commented: "This is a real who's who of the music business. It's also a playlist of the defining soundtracks of the past half century. From the hippie counter revolution, through to punk, the new romantics, ska and on to the music of the new millennium, Wright was at the heart of it all, forging careers for stars on both sides of the Atlantic."[17]
Wright promoted his autobiography with a raft of media engagements in the UK. He was a "Listed Londoner" on the Robert Elms show on
References
- ^ a b c Pierre Perrone, "Alvin Lee: Guitar hero with rockers Ten Years After" (obituary), The Independent, 7 March 2013.
- ^ Jones, Chris, "Chris Wright: I can’t save Wasps but I fear for them if they go down", Evening Standard, 18 April 2012.
- ^ Queen's Birthday Honours 2005 recipient lists. BBC News, 10 June 2005.
- ^ "Plea from Chris: Where is my precious Mariners scrapbook?", Grimsby News, 27 October 2014.
- ^ a b c Nisse, Jasson, "Profile: A truly passionate sport: Chris Wright of Chrysalis outplayed BSkyB in football with his Italian job and is now revving up a car racing deal. Jason Nisse on a music man with perfect pitch", The Independent, 7 February 1993.
- ^ "Folkie Anna Ford, the one who got away", Evening Standard, 10 October 2013.
- ^ "2015 Gold Badge Award Recipients Revealed", M, 16 September 2015.
- ^ Sherwin, Adam, "My biggest misses, by Chris Wright, the man who turned down David Bowie", The Independent, 13 October 2013.
- ^ Perrone, Pierre, "Labelled With Love: Chrysalis", Classic Pop, Issue 8, 5 December 2013.
- ^ "Media top 100 2003: 40. Chris Wright", The Guardian, 7 July 2003.
- ^ Sweney, Mark, "Chrysalis agrees to takeover by BMG", The Guardian, 26 November 2010.
- ^ Masson, Gordon, "BMG Acquires Chrysalis", Variety, 26 November 2010.
- ^ "History of the Philadelphia Fury, part one: Enter the Fury". Ussoccerhistory.org. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
- ^ "Wright prepared to cut ties with QPR for £1". The Daily Telegraph. 3 April 2001. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
- ^ "QPR strike deal with Wright". BBC Sport. 30 December 2004. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ "Music mogul has Wonderful Tonight tuned for Arc after Royal Ascot win". Theguardian.com. 19 June 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
- ^ Henderson, Gerard (25 October 2013). "One Way Or Another by Chris Wright - review". The Daily Express.
- ^ "With Listed Londoner Chris Wright, Keith Houston, Laura Wright and Gary Numan", Robert Elms, BBC Radio London, 23 September 2013.
- ^ "Heart of Glass", Johnnie Walker's Sounds of the 70s, BBC Radio 2, 24 November 2013.
Further reading
- Wright, Chris (2013), One Way Or Another – My Life In Music, Sport And Entertainment, Omnibus Press, ISBN 1783052287
- ISBN 1860744923(Foreword by Chris Wright)
- Ashton, James (16 October 2013), "Memories of the music mogul who called tune at Chrysalis", Evening Standard